Headquarters
Alveena Malik
Co-Founder & Director, One Million Mentors
Former CEO of UpRising with 20 years experience of working, at a senior level, on equalities and cohesion issues as well as delivering social innovation projects.
Previously, Alveena was Principal Associate at the Institute for Community Cohesion (iCoCo) with lead responsibility on Education and Cohesion Policy and Intercultural Dialogue. She liaised with national/local government and schools on the role that education can play in bridging cultures, strengthening active citizenship and promoting community cohesion.
Alveena was also Head of Communities and Integration Policy at the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) where she led the development of CRE policy on issues of Migration, Segregation, Extremism, Interfaith Dialogue and Conflict Resolution and Mediation.
Alveena was appointed as Special Advisor to the Communities and Local Government Committee on Migration and PREVENT. In 2010 she was appointed as Faith Panel Advisor to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. She was also an Advisor to the Law Society’s Equality and Diversity Committee.
Tufael Ahmed
Head of Technology and Finance
Tufael was formerly Project Director of a private equity company, where he was responsible for the strategic planning of resources, systems, processes and procedures for each of the group’s companies. He was also a key advisor to the board of directors, providing strategic input on operational decisions as well as technology-focussed potential investments.
Previously, Tufael has been involved in technology for over 20 years, having co-owned and built two technology companies, one in solutions and the other in software. He shared responsibility for building them from the ground up and is well suited to providing advice to startups and growing businesses.
Tufael now works as a freelance consultant to SMEs who require support on business strategy and operational activities, in particular organisations that have a critical technological element. He is also passionate about local communities and their engagement with civil society. He contributes to a number of community-based organisations in his spare time.
Sue Belgrave
Mentor and Organisation Development Lead
Sue worked in health care, community development and television before joining The Body Shop International where she became the uniquely titled General Manager for Company Culture, an organization development role. In that role Sue was responsible for ensuring that the experience of those who worked for the company and therefore the culture, was aligned with The Body Shop’s high profile external image. Her department covered employee wellbeing, volunteering, celebrations and managing change. Having held internal responsibility for organisation development, Sue then went on to consult on OD and to set up “Hot Brushes “a business specializing in using the visual arts in organisations.
Sue then joined Roffey Park where she was the Director for the Organisational Development Practionner Programme for six years. Creating the environment in which voices can be heard has been central to Sue’s work; she is a qualified coach, mentor and facilitator, has run more than 100 large group interventions across all business sectors and specializes in participative ways of working. Sue has run her own consultancy business for the last six years, finding delight in, working in Asia where she is an advisor to the Civil Service College and in the UK supporting the introduction of Buurtzorg a Netherlands based healthcare model. Sue is an active supporter of Freedom from Torture and the creator of the Living Advent Calendar for them.
Zahid Howladar
Delivery Team Manager
Zahid’s professional background includes nearly 10 years at companies such as Cap Gemini E&Y, Morgan Stanley, and J.P. Morgan. Primarily in financial control, Zahid’s strong deliverables saw him quickly selected for JP Morgan’s Management Development program.
Since completing an MBA in 2010, Zahid keenly engages in social impact initiatives and startups. He first managed the Dubai arm of an inaugural global CSR initiative, which today is known as The Hult Prize and partnered with the Clinton Global Initiative. Hult IBS was a fledgling business school at the time, for which Zahid was Founder and Global Lead of its largest student initiative. For 5 years, he independently grew the leadership to serve 3,000+ across 5 international cities. Just one of its many unique achievements is the raising of what remains a school-record $35,000 for charity.
Most recently Zahid was a Business Development Consultant for a startup working closely with charities globally to explore feasibility of providing specific dietary requirements. Successful projects have been implemented in Bangladesh, Rohingya, Syria, and soon in Yemen.
Judith McKinney
Executive Assistant to the Director and Events Manager
Extensive experience in project management, administration and events management for an international NGO and several charities in the UK with a focus on young people and employability.
Judith worked at City Gateway, an East London Charity and Alternative Provision Free School that offers training for young people and women, starts social enterprises to serve the local community and builds partnerships with a wide range of firms and community organisations to help people into employment. Judith joined City Gateway in 2010 as Personal Assistant to the CEO, moving roles to Senior Executive Administrator in 2013 where she led a team of Personal and Executive Assistants, as well as supporting the Senior Executive Team and Governance. As part of her time at City Gateway, Judith supported the CEO and Senior Executive Team through the Ladder for London Campaign in conjunction with the Evening Standard newspaper, the goal of which was to create 1000 new apprenticeship placements.
More recently Judith coordinated The Young Foundation’s “MY100 Conference” in November 2015 and formed an integral part of the event team leading on UpRising’s national fundraiser in February 2016.
Judith has a passion for languages, in which she obtained a BA degree from Queen’s University of Belfast. Her love of languages and further studies in European Business Administration led her to work in Spain for 10 years as Personal Assistant to the International Director of an NGO, World Horizons International.
Sally Kenyon
Research and Communications Officer
Sally has experience working on a range of projects with people affected by conflict, poverty and inequality, as well as in digital marketing and communications.
While studying for her MSc in International Development: Development Management, she developed theoretical and practical knowledge in project planning and management. After her studies, she took on an internship with a youth organisation in the West Bank, Palestine, where she gained insight into the impact of conflict and effective tools for improving community cohesion. Since returning, she has been active in supporting refugees and asylum seekers in Manchester.
Working with Manchester City of Sanctuary, she has been responsible for delivering community events and projects that foster the wellbeing of people seeking sanctuary in Greater Manchester. She is most proud of her work in building the organisation’s volunteer base, which provides the opportunity for refugees and asylum seekers to become active participants in the charity and gain valuable employability and life skills.
Alongside this work, she has been working for an integrated marketing agency in Liverpool as a Digital Marketing Executive. Sally is looking forward to applying her digital skills to bring together mentors and mentees, and to demonstrate the impact of One Million Mentors.
Cardiff Capital Region
Richard Jones
Regional Manager for Cardiff Capital Region
Richard grew up in Newport, South Wales and has been involved in sport and leisure in a participation, professional and voluntary capacity all his life. After completing a degree in Sport and Leisure Management at Cardiff Metropolitan University he went on to work as part of the Sports Development Team at Newport City Council for 10 years. His work with Newport included working in some of the most deprived communities in Wales as well as working on a range of programmes including club development programmes and volunteer projects.
Following his time in Newport Richard has worked for Sport Wales as a Senior Officer, Hockey Wales as Regional Manager and more recently as Senior Inclusion Manager as Swansea City AFC Community Trust developing a programme aimed at getting disabled children and young people involved in sport and volunteering.
Aside from work Richard is Chairperson of his local tennis club, coaches and plays tennis end enjoys spending time with his 2 boys and family travelling the coast in their campervan!
Greater Manchester
Lisa Murgatroyd
Regional Manager for Greater Manchester
Lisa joins the team from the role of Business Manager at coworking growth hub Accelerate Places, where she has forged an extensive network and expertise in supporting businesses. Lisa launched the space in Manchester, quickly building a community of over 35 businesses and establishing the brand within a burgeoning flexible office scene. Developing initiatives and programmes to support the entrepreneurs and start-up founders, Lisa worked closely to understand the challenges facing businesses across the creative, tech and digital space across the North West.
Following her studies of the Middle East at the University of Manchester, where she developed the faculty’s first peer to peer mentoring scheme, Lisa was employed in Marketing and Business Development for an event technology start-up. Additional strengths include events management and production, and community engagement.
With a personal passion for mentoring, Lisa has previous experience working with young people as part of the RECLAIM Project in Manchester, and also serves as a business mentor for Tech Manchester.
Isobel Finlay
Project Co-ordinator for Greater Manchester
With a history of working to improve the rights and opportunities of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK Isobel has strong skills in project management, campaigns and event organisation.
During her time studying Neuroscience at the University of Bristol, Isobel worked closely with Student Action for Refugees (STAR). As Bristol STAR President Isobel was responsible for the for the recruitment and management of volunteers and encouraging attendance of local refugees and asylum seekers to the three STAR volunteering projects. Working closely with external partners Isobel designed and delivered training to each volunteer, including safeguarding training and project inductions.
In a previous role as Bristol STAR Equal Access Coordinator, Isobel worked with representatives from the University of Bristol, local politicians and similar refugee organisations in Bristol to campaign for and develop a scholarship scheme for asylum seekers to attend the University. Equal Access is a campaign to ensure that people in the UK seeking refugee protection have equal access to higher education and can join university as equals. This work came to fruition when in June 2016 the Sanctuary Scholarship scheme was announced, offering 10 scholarships for those coming from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds.
Isobel previously worked for RB as an Archive Assistant and is currently a Child.org Charity Fast-Tracker
West Midlands
Catherine Green
Project Co-ordinator for West Midlands
With experience in events delivery, management, administration and customer service, Catherine is fierce champion for community spirit and has sought opportunities to bring people together in every role. Catherine joins 1MM after 3 years working in hospitality management within Manchester-based independent businesses.
Prior to this Catherine worked for the Manchester youth-leadership charity RECLAIM, assisting in events and bid writing. She continued as a mentor for the charity and gained a real insight into the benefits of mentoring, a passion she brings to 1MM. She also has financial administrative experience working for corporate law leaders Eversheds-Sutherland.
Catherine works voluntarily with Plattfields Market Garden, a community garden project based in South Manchester with a vision to expand across the city.
Julie Hobbins
Special Project Manager
Julie has worked at a senior level as a specialist funding expert in the education sector for most of her career, and led the national policy and implementation teams for the European Social Fund within the Education and Skills Funding Agency and its predecessors for many years. She developed national policy and associated systems and processes, and led complex multi-million-pound workforce development and skills programmes with multiple stakeholders. She also procured and successfully delivered these through colleges, private training organisations, and third sector organisations, addressing employer needs and supporting economic growth.
More recently, she has been running her own skills consultancy business across the further and higher education sectors, and through this became involved in supporting and promoting mentoring within the West Midlands.
She has also been a member of the Board of Trustees of a small charity which specialised in helping those at disadvantage achieve through support, learning and jobs, where she worked with the CEO to set strategies, scrutinise reports and support the charity to deliver and extend its strategic goals.
Julie is currently also training to become a health coach.